Pirates of the East Blue
by Anime PJ
Summary: My dream since childhood has been to go on a great adventure. Now, with my friend and captain Monkey D. Luffy, I just might have that chance. Clowns, butlers, Fishmen and more. Come join me as I go on the journey of a lifetime to get to the Grand Line and help my captain become King of the Pirates! First in the 'Pirates of ...' series. Slow updates - be patient.
1. We're Fish in a Barrel

**Hello and welcome to another new fanfiction by yours truly! This will be for** ** _One Piece_** **, just in case you didn't read the category, and yes, the title is directly inspired by** ** _Pirates of the Caribbean._ I am also in no way sorry for starting this many stories, because if I didn't I would be bored out of my skull writing for only a few of them. ****In this story my own character will be a part of the Straw Hats and accompany them on all the adventures they find themselves in. It will be OC/Nami, just to let you know. Oh, and there will be quite a few OC pirates on the enemy crews so that my OC has somebody to fight when all the enemies that actually have character are taken by other members of the crew. Feel free to send a few in if you have any ideas.**

 **This little idea hear came about after reading an abysmal amount of _One Piece_ stories. It started out as this nagging little voice in my head that kept telling me "Write the story, PJ, write it!" and I just couldn't ignore it. I'm not sure how good it's going to be by the standards of the people reading it, but I'm only a chapter in and I'm already looking at this story like it's my masterpiece ... but you guys can be the judges of that, can't you? I hope you enjoy the first in my _Pirates of..._ series!**

 **Oh and, fair warning, if you don't like a character who kills people with no hesitation whatsoever, then you won't like my OC. His moral code is strict to the point where if someone harms innocents in any way, he has literally** ** _no_** **problem killing them. Unless they're much more powerful than him, in which case he'll try, but almost definitely fail.**

 **Let's begin. He'll be with Luffy from the beginning, because I like to get the whole story in whenever I can.**

* * *

We're Fish in a Barrel

Gol D. Roger (aka: Gold Roger) had it all. Money, power, pretty much everything else you can imagine, really. He was the envy of every person who knew of him. And with his dying words, he brought about a new age to the world: _You want my treasure? You can have it. I've hidden everything I've gathered in one place. Now you just have to find it._ It was these words that brought many a man to the Grand Line, the most dangerous sea of them all, in search of the One Piece, that one bit of treasure that would make the one who found it King or Queen of the Pirates. This was the Great Pirate Era.

And in the middle of it all, was my captain and me.

"Luffy," I said, sighing and rubbing my head in annoyance. "If we ever get out of this, we are going to have a _serious_ talk about your directional capabilities." The situation I was in was a rather stressful one, to say the least. You see, my idiot captain had somehow managed to lead us—our crew of only the two of us—into the path of a whirlpool. How did we escape it? I have no fucking idea; Luffy just jumped into a barrel, pulled me in, and we prayed to whatever deity may have been watching that we wouldn't die. We were still in the barrel … and I was rather uncomfortable with the rather cramped up space we were in.

Have I not introduced myself? Forgive me. My name is Stuart 'Dagger-Man' Starling, though I prefer Stu. I had black hair, unkempt and uncut, that had red highlights and was pushed back to avoid getting it in my eyes. My eyes were a dark, harrowing blue that rather a lot of people mistook for black at first glance. I wouldn't say I was muscular, but I wasn't exactly lacking in physique either; if anything, I was just casually athletic. I wore a black vest that showed off my scarred arms and equally black, loose-fitting trousers, along with a pair of boots (also black). There was a belt holding up my trousers that had two holsters, containing my two baselards—a type of sword that resembled a large dagger. What most people couldn't see was that I also had plenty of daggers concealed in small pockets within my clothing. There was a small band-aid on my cheek.

"Why do my … whatever you just said, matter?" my friend Luffy asked. "Aren't directions what the Navigator's for?" Luffy also had black hair, even blacker than mine as it happened, and eyes with pin-prick irises surrounded by no perceivable colour. He had a huge grin on his face and a scar under his left eye. He wore a straw hat atop his head and short blue trousers with cuffs, sandals and a sleeveless red vest. He looked scrawny, but don't be fooled, the guy could kick every kind of ass imaginable and still be home in time for dinner … assuming he didn't bring dinner with him, that is.

"You know, Luffy, I would be more inclined to agree with that logic if we actually _had_ a fucking Navigator," I said. As much as I cared for my dear friend, there was no denying that he was _really_ stupid. "Do we even have a plan here? It's not that I don't enjoy floating on the ocean in a tightly packed space, but … I don't. Some sort of plan would be nice."

"Eh, I figured we'd just wait until someone picks us up," he told me. Most would be thoroughly baffled by his lack of interest in the situation, but by Luffy's standards that was a really well-thought plan.

That fact still didn't stop me from sighing though. "As interesting as that would make this, did it not occur to you that we might actually be getting further away from our goal? Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that I'm in this for the adventure, I'd think you're a raving lunatic." The way I saw it, we had two options. Go with Luffy's plan or stick my head out of the barrel to see what the situation was like and make a decision from there. I fumbled in my pocket, struggling due to the cramped space, and pulled out an old, dirty belli coin. _Heads I take a look, tails we go with Luffy's plan._ I flipped it. It landed on tails. "Well I suggest we find some way to pass the time," I said as I struggled to put the coin back in my pocket.

We sat there in awkward silence, the sound of seagulls could be heard from outside our small, wooden prison. I was starting to get bored. I reflected on the time I'd spent with Luffy thus far. I'd met him about three months ago when I happened to come across the village where he was living. Why did I just happen across it, you may ask? I'll leave my story for a later date. There are more important things to see to right now.

I was brought out of my boredom when I was suddenly forced to the side and hit my head off the wood that surrounded us. _It would appear we've hit something._ I heard a splash in the water just beside us. Then another. Then another. I sighed. Clearly whoever was trying to get us out of the water was not the brightest tool in the shed.

"Ugh, I missed _again!_ " I heard someone groan from above us. There was much laughter from other people around him, by the sound of it.

"Strike three, pal!" I heard a man laugh.

"I would be embarrassed!" I heard another man yell. "You suck!"

"It would appear somebody's being made fun of out there," I said, turning to Luffy as I did so. "Let's just hope they stop long enough to get us out of the fucking water. I don't recall you being its best friend." I should probably take this time to tell you that I swear an awful lot when I'm speaking. I've always done it, and I'm not going to stop just for the sake of politeness.

"I wonder if they have any meat," Luffy said. Of course. He'd ignored me completely. I sighed and went on with my silent waiting.

It took a while but it would appear one of those idiots finally got the rope onto the barrel. I could feel a sinking sensation in my stomach as the barrel was lifted from the water. It almost felt like I was flying. I chose to ignore the comments that our saviours made about the weight of the barrel we were occupying. I felt more than a little annoyance at the fact that they were holding the barrel on its side, so Luffy had fallen onto me and I was now in an even more uncomfortable position.

"SHIP OFF THE STARBOARD BOW!" I heard one of the men, a little further away than the other two, shout in a panic. I grinned a little at the implications. A ship would only bring that much panic out of a man if it were a ship containing one thing: pirates. It looked like this was going to be fun. "AND THEY'RE FLYING A PIRATE FLAG! WE'VE GOT A PIRATE SHIP IN PURSUIT!" And that was when my head hurt like a bitch because the people holding our barrel decided to drop it. Not an unreasonable reaction, but my head hurt too much for me to care.

There were several loud explosions and a lot of incredibly loud splashing in the water surrounding the ship we were on. That meant the pirates had fired the cannons. I heard more cannon fire from outside, most of it hitting the water from the sounds of it, but I definitely heard _something_ on the ship splinter.

"Good God, these guys have terrible aim," I huffed. I could understand the cannon fire if they were trying to sink the ship, but the odds were that they wanted to rob it first, so the cannon fire was likely meant for intimidation purposes. That was a waste of perfectly good cannon balls, in my opinion. People are already going to be intimidated when they see the pirate flag, so there was literally no point in trying to scare them further. _Wait … no, that was definitely another hit on the ship. Okay, maybe they_ don't _care about it sinking before they can rob it._

Whatever the cannon had hit, it definitely had quite the effect on the ship. The barrel started rolling, me and Luffy kept getting whacked into one another. He looked like he was having fun … I found that hard to disagree with, even though I was a little more conscious of the tight space than he was. Then came the numerous bounces and hits of my head against the wood of the barrel that probably meant we were falling down some stairs. That one hurt. A lot. Back to rolling, another crash, this one probably into a wall or a door or something, and then a lot of spinning. I was feeling nauseous and Luffy was laughing his ass off.

"Well, I'm glad _you're_ enjoying this," I said in complete deadpan. Or, at least, as close to deadpan as I could get whilst trying to hold in some puke.

"You bet I'm enjoying this!" he exclaimed with laughter. "This is fun! So, d'you wanna get out of the barrel?"

I hummed in thought. "Not quite yet," I told him. I had developed a malicious smirk on my face. "With the pirates likely about to board the ship, I figured we could have some fun with them if they find the barrel." There was a moment's silence before I added, "But if you want to get out, Captain, then by all means. This is _your_ crew, after all."

"Nah," Luffy refused with a fast shake of his head. "Your idea sounds more fun!"

"H-Hello …" a rather young sounding voice called into the room we'd fallen into after a while of silence. "I-I really hope there's no one in here …" There were a couple of footsteps and then a sigh. "That's a relief," the person said. I guessed he must have been trying to get away from the pirates. I heard his footsteps get closer to where we lay. "Wow, that's one big barrel. I wonder what's inside it."

I felt the sensation of our barrel being slowly rolled across the room … very slowly, in fact. Whoever this kid was, he clearly wasn't the muscular type. No matter. After a few seconds another load of footsteps could be heard. From the sound of it there was more than one person, maybe two or three.

"It's our favourite coward," a gruff sounding man said from nearby the barrel. "You trying to hide in here and dunk out on all the action again?"

"No way!" the young one said in a panic. "I was just trying to lug this big barrel of beer over to you guys!"

There was some laughter from the older one. "Why don't you let us lighten the load?"

"I was just starting to get thirsty," another older voice added in.

"You can't!" the young one exclaimed. "Lady Alvida would kill us if she ever found out!"

"She won't if you keep your trap shut," a third older voice said. "Right, boy?"

"Yeah … right …" The young one let out some nervous laughter.

I could feel the barrel being tipped the right way up, me and Luffy managing to right ourselves quickly, without making too much noise. I heard the pirates comment on the weight of the barrel and got a little annoyed. One of them announced that he was going to open the barrel 'the old fashioned way' which I took to mean punching it open. I looked at Luffy and nodded, making his grin widen even further than it already was. With a mighty yell, Luffy used both of his arms to punch his way out of the barrel, one of his fists catching the one who had been preparing to punch the barrel open in the face.

Using the clearly dumbfounded expressions of the other two older pirates to my advantage I leapt from the barrel, too, pulled my baselards from their sheaths at my side, and lunged forwards with them, catching one of the pirates in the chest and the other in the throat. Their blood flooded the area around us and they fell to the floor dead.

Some would say I'm a monster for killing people, but pirates who attack innocent people all deserve it one way or the other. You could be a pirate and not hurt innocents, but it seemed that not many were able to grasp that basic concept. Though, if it makes it easier for you, I didn't exactly enjoy it. When I jumped them from the barrel, I had at least expected them to react quickly enough to fight back. There was no honour or justice in killing a man who couldn't fight back, I don't care what he's done in the past.

"You got any food?" Luffy asked the young kid who was sat, shaking, nearby. He was short, wore large round glasses, and had light pink hair. Unlike Luffy, he seemed to take notice of the fact that I'd just killed two people, and was shaking like a leaf, taking cautious glances at me.

"Wh-Who are you two?" the kid asked us.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy!" Luffy introduced himself.

"The name's Stuart, but call me Stu," I told him.

He looked at me with wide eyes. "Y-Y-You just killed those guys!" He pointed at the corpses as if I didn't know they were there.

"So?" I shrugged. "You didn't seem to like them all that much. And I'm not planning on killing _you_ , so what's the big deal? Is it the mess? Because I'm sure the crew of this ship can get that cleaned up in no time." I saw that he was still shaking—even more so now that I'd acted so casually about the men I'd just killed. I sighed. "Look, kid, it's not like I enjoy it, okay? I mean, I'm a _pirate_ ," I reasoned. "So it stands to reason that I do some very bad things … and I do them _very_ well. But I only tend to do them to other pirates."

The kid seemed to shake himself out of his fear … okay, not his fear, but his mental breakdown, and began to yell at us. "IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE PIRATES, YOU GUYS GOTTA RUN! If Lady Alvida finds out about this, she'll kill you on the spot!"

"I don't care about that. I'm hungry," Luffy said.

"How can you just blow this off like that!?" the kid shouted at us. "You just killed two guys, and there's hundreds more waiting up on deck that'll kill anything!"

"Oh, good," I said casually. "I may not take pleasure in killing, but there's never any harm in cleaning up the oceans a little, right?" My humour was quite crude, I admit. But to be fair to myself, I _had_ just spent a good portion of time stuck in a barrel, cramped in with another male. I think I had a right to be pretty crude after that.

It didn't matter, either way. Luffy was heading towards a cupboard of some sort and the kid was was clinging to his arm, trying to hold him back. Luffy was actually struggling … for some reason. Honestly, he was way too strong for a kid that size to be bothering him, and yet he was struggling … what the fuck? Anyway, I just shook my head, a grin on my face at the strange display, and followed at a slow pace. Luffy eventually reached the cupboard and opened up one of its double doors, walking inside, and allowing it to swing closed. I winced in sympathy as the kid's head got stuck in the closing door and he cried out in pain.

I sighed and walked towards the door, re-opening it and freeing the poor guy's head. He looked at me in what I thought was some form of gratitude and stood aside to allow me to enter. I sent a warm smile at him, hoping to make me appear more trustworthy after my … less than nice looking display out in the kitchen.

As I entered I saw that the cupboard wasn't actually a cupboard at all. As a matter of fact, it was a large storage room for food. There were boxes and sacks of different kinds of food all over the place. Luffy was ecstatic.

My captain let out a loud laugh of pure joy and cried, "Food! This is a goldmine!" He leaped down to the bottom of the room and began turning his head left and right, getting really excited about the sheer amount of food that surrounded us. "Food food food food food!" Seriously, he didn't even stop for breath.

"Maybe we'll be safe in here …" the kid said from behind me. I heard the door snap closed. "As long as no one else gets hungry …" In the background Luffy was still having a happy-attack over the food.

"This looks promising!" yelled Luffy. He'd opened up one of the boxes and it turned out to be full of apples. "Apples! Excellent!" He let out a loud laugh. He picked up two of the apples. "Tasty." He then threw both apples into the air and caught both in his mouth at once, chewing for but a few seconds, and swallowed them down. Three months of hanging out with this guy and his eating habits still baffled me.

"M-My name's Coby," the kid introduced himself to us. I'd walked down to where Luffy was and picked out an apple before he could eat them all. I was happily munching away as I listened to Coby speak. "You're Luffy and Stu, right? The thing you did with the barrel was pretty neat … except for the, er, killing thing." He shot me a nervous glance and I sighed. I was starting to see just how much my attitude repelled normal people.

 _Oh well,_ I thought. _It's not like I'll be spending much time with normal people on this trip, anyway._

"These are great!" Luffy exclaimed, looking between me and Coby with that giant, unnatural grin of his. He turned back to the apples and, with his mouth full, he said, "So are we on a pirate ship or what?"

"No," Coby told him. "It's a passenger ship that's being raided by pirates."

"Yeah, Luffy," I said. "Even by your standards it's kind of stupid to not know that. As I recall, we were both _very_ conscious when the attack started. And we both heard it." I paused for a moment. "But, of course, knowing you, you spaced out completely until we started getting knocked about, am I right?" I turned to speak to Coby. "Who's crew is doing the raiding, anyway? I'd like to know who we're going to be fighting to get out of here."

"L-Lady Alvida," stuttered Coby. He seemed more than a little put-off by the way I said we would be fighting them.

"Ah, who cares anyway?" Luffy asked. "What we need to know is: are there any boats on board?" I was slightly embarrassed. Luffy had managed to think ahead of me … I didn't know how to feel about that.

"… I think there are a few," Coby told us. He sounded slightly confused by the question. Then again, we were leaving quite a few gaps in our story. I suppose confusion is a rather reasonable reaction.

"Good. 'Cause ours got sucked into some big whirlpool." Luffy never dropped his casual tone.

"That big one outside?" Coby asked, his eyes wide in shock. "No way! No one could've survived that." His tone was full of awe.

"Well, _we_ survived that," I pointed out to him. "It took us by surprise, for sure. But you wouldn't believe what you can accomplish by jumping into a barrel. Hell, I can scarcely believe it myself." I took a final bite from my apple and threw the core onto the ground. "So, where do you fit into all this, Coby? Are you an invad _er_ or an invad _ee_?" I realise that 'invadee' isn't actually a word, but the phrase was good so I didn't care.

Coby's face fell into one of depression at my question. He looked to the ground solemnly and I began to grow concerned. Then he looked up again and said, "It was on a fateful day, long ago. That day … I stepped out onto a small fishing boat on the outskirts of town to go catch my dinner. It turned out that particular boat was actually headed for a pirate ship. That was two years ago. In exchange for them letting me live, I'm forced to live the life of a cabin boy."

There was silence in the room. Until …

"You're pretty stupid, you know that?" Luffy said to him. He was crouched in a frog-like position and looking at Coby intently.

"Gee, thanks for your honesty," Coby said, burying his face in his knees.

"If you hate it, then leave," Luffy told him, as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Are you kidding? I can't do that! Nuh-uh! No way! Not a chance!" Coby shook his head fervently as he cried out his many denials. "Just the thought of Alvida finding me scares me so badly I might throw up!"

"You're a moron _and_ a coward!" Luffy said, laughter leaking through his words. "I hate people like you!"

Coby turned away, a dumbfounded expression on his face at the behaviour my captain was showing. There was also most definitely quite a lot of sadness in there, too, because of the way Luffy had just pointed out his worst features. It was likely that he knew them to be true, but just didn't want to face that fact.

"Coby," I said in an attempt to get his attention. He looked at me and I continued on, speaking directly into his face. "You can't live your life in fear. That's no way for anybody to live out their lives. Facing your fear is half the fun in life, and the sooner you accept that, the better your life will be." During my speech I stood up and looked through one of the small windows on the door. _Oh dear,_ I thought as I took in what was outside. _It would appear that the third pirate has woken up. Better prepare for a fight._

"You're right," Coby said after a while. "If I had the courage, I could drift out alone in a barrel and be rid of these pirates. I actually have my own dreams. Some day … I'd like to live out all of them. So … what about you guys? What first got you two to sail on these seas?"

"Well I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" Luffy exclaimed with a massive grin on his face.

Coby's expression was, in a word, comical. His jaw had dropped, his pupils had shrunk to the size of pin-pricks and his eyes were wide. His whole face was an expression of pure shock.

"Th-the King …?" he asked in a strangled voice.

"Yep!" Luffy told him.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah!"

"B-but … you don't have a crew."

"I have Stu. I'm still lookin' for the rest."

Coby was silent. His face was frozen in that same comically shocked expression. Luffy waved a hand in front of his face and he jumped onto his feet.

"King of the Pirates is a title reserved for the one who obtains everything this world has to offer! You're talking about seeking the ultimate treasure of wealth, fame and power! The treasure that you seek is the One Piece!"

"Yeah!" Luffy confirmed.

"'Yeah,' that's it!? Pirates all over the world are looking for that treasure, you know!?"

"Yeah, so?"

Coby began to shake not only his head, but his entire body with it. "No way! It's impossible! Impossible! Impossible! No way that anyone like you could reach that pinnacle in this great pirate age! There's just too many out there that are meaner and better!"

Coby was then sent to the floor by a well-placed hit to the top of his head, courtesy of Luffy.

"Thank you, Luffy," I said with a sigh. I rubbed my forehead with a slightly pained expression on my face. "That was starting to get _really_ annoying."

" _Ow!_ Why did you hit me?" Coby asked from his spot on the ground, rubbing the spot on his head where Luffy had hit him.

"'Cause I felt like it," Luffy said.

"Oh well," Coby groaned, sitting up from his spot on the ground. "I'm used to it. My shipmates smack me around a lot. All the time, in fact."

"It's not about _if_ I can," Luffy said. He placed a hand proudly on his straw hat. "I'm doing this because I want to." He took his hat off and looked upon it fondly. "I decided long ago that I'm gonna be King of the Pirates. If I have to die fighting for that, then I die."

Coby looked up at him in awe once again. You've got to give it to Luffy; he may be a huge idiot, but he was a hell of a good speaker.

"As pleasant as this conversation is, I think it'd be best if we got our boat and left," I said to Luffy. "You've eaten enough for now, right? If we don't grab a boat now, those fuckers upstairs will probably have destroyed them by the time we finally get to it."

"Yeah, you're right! Let's go!" Luffy agreed enthusiastically. "They might even just give us one if we ask nice enough. They might be really generous people."

"Oh, Luffy, if only we all had your optimism." I smiled at the ignorance of my friend and captain as we began to walk for the door. I'd liked Luffy almost since the moment I met him. I have always been able to see his ignorance and stupidity, but there was much more to him than that. Luffy was a collection of bravery, determination and loyalty. He was a person who would go to the ends of the Earth to reach his goals, and I'd found in the three months that I'd known him that he had a very definite idea of how a pirate crew worked. Our crew was our family. And a family was no good if we didn't work together and help one another.

In the end, it was near impossible to not like Luffy.

"If I put my mind to it … if I'm prepared to die for it, do you think I could do something like that?" Coby asked from behind us. We turned and saw him, still facing away from us.

"Like what?" Luffy asked.

"Do you think … do you think I could every join the Marines?" Coby asked.

"The Marines?" Luffy asked.

"Yes!" Coby confirmed. He stood up, turned towards us, and there was a new look of determination in his eyes. "Catching bad guys is all I've ever wanted to do! It's been my dream since I was a child! Do you think I could do it?"

"Only you can decide that," I said. "Do you think Luffy would be doing this if all he did was sit there and question himself? No, of course he wouldn't. Hell, for all the talk I used to give about going on a great adventure, it wasn't until I had a … push to do it that I really got started _doing_ it. But you don't have a push, Coby. You have to push _yourself_ if you ever want to make your dreams a reality."

"Then I'll do it!" Coby declared, walking forwards to join us. "I'm not gonna be stuck here as a cabin boy for the rest of my life! I'll break out and then I'll turn right around and catch Alvida myself!"

There was an almighty _CRASH!_ A large piece of ceiling caved in and what looked like a giant metal mace was sticking down through the hole. _Looks like the third pirate went for backup._ That one chunk of ceiling caving in caused the entire thing to fall through, leaving only a few parts of it around the walls of the room.

" _Who_ is that you plan on catching, Coby?" came a loud, feminine (though only slightly) voice from the still-smoking debris that used to be the ceiling. "And you actually think this _twig_ and his pet are going to help you? _Wel_ _l_? Answer me!" Coby was shaking in fear. As the smoke cleared, I was faced with the biggest, fattest, _ugliest_ woman I had ever had the misfortune of laying my eyes on. She wore a white cowboy hat and had long black hair … and that's all I can bring myself to describe. She was vastly unpleasant to look at.

Coby continued to shake with fear. Swords tore through the door behind us. We were trapped. The woman in front of us—who I presumed to be this Lady Alvida we'd heard so much about—rested her giant mace on her shoulder and looked at Coby with a smirk … at least, I _think_ it was a smirk. I really couldn't tell because of how hideous she was. Alvida took a look at Luffy and her smirk(?) widened.

"So, I'm guessing you're _not_ Zoro the pirate hunter?" she asked, though I could tell it was rhetorical. It would appear that she'd expected somebody more threatening. I guess she got more than she bargained for in the end.

"Zoro?" Luffy wondered aloud.

"Who the hell is Zoro?" I asked, my own thoughts echoing his own.

"COBY!" Alvida shouted. Coby gave a yelp and near jumped out of his skin. _Damn, this woman's really left a mark on the poor kid._ "Who is the most beautiful of all on these seas?"

"Er, well, I, um …" Coby was trying to find the right words to answer the question, it seemed. I could see the debate raging on in him. I hoped he'd make the right choice. "Gimme a sec. I know this …"

Luffy pointed at Alvida. "Hey, Coby, who's the fat lady?"

Silence. Complete and utter silence. All of Alvida's crew (who had been watching from the massive hole now in the deck of the ship) had expressions of the utmost disbelief. Coby, once again, looked at Luffy like he was insane. So what did I do? Well, I decided to add to the pile, of course.

"I'm guessing from the reactions that she doesn't like being called fat," I said, placing my hand to my chin in mock thought. "Does 'fugly' sound any better to you? Deformed? Inhuman? I've got loads more, take your pick." And now everyone was looking at _me_ like I was crazy. Come to think of it, I may well have been, but it didn't change the fact that it was fun to mock people like this. Especially if their reactions were this priceless.

Alvida's teeth were clenched. There was finally something I found recognisable on that ogre-like face of hers: rage. Complete and unadulterated rage. She was pissed off at me and Luffy both, and it didn't look like she was going to let us off easy.

Good. Killing may not be fun to me, but _fighting_ is!

"…" Alvida was silent as a brewing storm. Her hat shadowed her eyes. She looked at us, her eyes contorted in rage, and she shouted at the top of her lungs. "YOUUUUUUUUUUU RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNTS!" And then she brought her giant mace down hard on the wooden floor we were standing on. Luckily we were all able to dodge it. Coby was cowering, his arms over his head. Luffy and I approached him in a crouch. Luffy forcibly grabbed his hand and jumped the ten feet to the deck of the ship, something only he could truly accomplish, at least to my knowledge. I employed some basic climbing skills and scaled the debris until I was also on the deck of the ship, standing side by side with Luffy and Coby.

I noticed that quite a lot of the pirates were staring at Luffy in shock. Probably marvelling at his inhuman jumping abilities. One of the pirates managed to pluck up some courage, and charged at Luffy, swinging his sword at him. Luffy back-flipped out of the way and brought his head forwards, making it connect with that of the pirate and knocking said pirate unconscious. Another pirate came up from behind, only to receive a fist directly to the face courtesy of Luffy. Luffy's grin was only wider now than it had been before, something that should have been impossible by conventional standards.

A crowd of six pirates all charged Luffy at once, only for him to jump backwards out of their reach, shouting "Missed me!" before landing about ten feet away from them. They looked at him, dumbfounded, whereas I simply smirked. They correctly deemed him the larger threat, so they were all going for him, but I doubt they'd expected him to do things like this. Luffy stood tall, raised his left arm, and slapped the top half as if to show off his muscles. He let out a chuckle.

Then I noticed something. There was a pirate on the higher deck behind Luffy, and he was charging and about to jump off to attack. _Not on my watch._ I ran and got behind Luffy, and as the pirate landed I plunged one of my baselards into his chest, causing his eyes to widen for a moment before he slipped off the end of it, landing dead on the deck of the ship.

"It's not nice to sneak up on people," I warned the rest of them. "Now, as much as I'd like to finish you all off, I don't really want to make too much of a mess. Someone has to clean this shit up, you know. You're more likely to survive if my captain here fights you, so you can just deal with him." I smirked, turned towards them and crossed my arms. "I'll just sit here and enjoy the show."

Just as I said that, a whole lot of other guys turned up and glared at Luffy. It seemed they were still going to go for him, even after the little show I'd just put on. Oh well. They made a point of glaring and growling at my captain, and my captain made a point of widening his eyes and letting out a cry of panic. Seeing this, they seemed to gain a new confidence, and charged at Luffy, who ran away as quickly as he could, screaming at the top of his lungs. _Oh, you poor, gullible sods._

Running, Luffy grabbed onto one of the masts of the ship, not letting go even after he'd passed it. I watched with a smirk as his arm stretched to an unnaturally long length, his hand never giving even a hint of moving from its spot on the mast. The pirates noticed, too. They all paused by his hand and stared in confusion … then looked at Luffy in fear. It seemed that they'd figured out his plan. They screamed and tried to run away.

Luffy turned back and grinned. "Got ya!" he said. His arm began shaking quite badly. "GUM … GUM …" The looks of fear on the faces of the retreating pirates was hilarious to watch as Luffy said the name of his attack. "ROCKET!" Luffy lifted his feet from the ground and allowed his arm to retract at an alarming rate, sending him flying towards the pirates like some kind of giant slingshot. He crashed into them and they went down like a sack of spuds, completely knocked out. I gave a rapid round of applause for my captain with the smirk still in place on my face. Oddly enough, Coby and Alvida both had the same look of shock on their faces.

"Luffy … what are you?" Coby asked as he and I approached my superhuman captain.

"Oh," Luffy said. He took the side of his face in one hand and stretched it out, making his voice sound slightly muffled when he next spoke. "I'm a rubber man!"

"So you're … made of rubber?" Coby asked.

"No shit," I told him. "What do you think 'rubber man' means, that he has a massive amount of condoms?" Luffy didn't get the joke, but Coby stuttered some so he must have understood. Then Coby looked behind me and started shaking again. He hid behind Luffy and I turned around to see Alvida stood before us.

"So, you've eaten one of the Devil Fruits," she said, addressing Luffy.

"Yeah, I ate the Gum Gum one," Luffy told her. That damn smile never left his face … you'd almost think he was talking to a friend.

"I'd heard that they existed," Alvida told us, "but I've never seen any evidence that they existed before today. You're more skilled than the average deck-swabber. Are you a bounty hunter?"

"I'm a pirate!"

"Pirate? Ha! All by yourself on these waters?"

"I'm not alone, I have Stu." He gestured to me and I nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll find the rest of my crew tomorrow … or next week or something. I need like, I don't know, ten guys. Yeah, ten."

"Ha! Tell me, if we're both pirates, and we're not under the same flag, then that would make us enemies, am I right?"

"Uh, Luffy," Coby said, getting my captain's attention. "Let's go."

"Why?" Luffy asked him.

"You saw how powerful her club is! And of all the villainous cheats in these waters, she's easily the most …" He stopped speaking. Me and Luffy were giving him a look. A look that told him his next words would determine his future, and how he stood in our eyes. A look that asked 'how will you live the rest of your life?'

"Go on," Alvida urged Coby, that terrible smirk back on her face again. "Tell me."

Coby shook in place for a few seconds before a look of sheer determination came over him. He looked at Alvida, and he yelled, "YOU'RE THE MOST UGLIEST THING ON THE SEA!"

And with that sentence, Coby had earned my respect.

The rest of the Alvida Pirates had their jaws hanging so far open I could swear they were about to hit the floor. Alvida herself looked more pissed off than ever before. Coby had his eyes and mouth firmly shut. Then Luffy started laughing as loudly as it was possible for him to laugh at anything. I grinned and said, "Couldn't have understated that more if you'd said she was slightly unattractive."

"What did you say!?" Alvida demanded.

Coby walked a step closer to her and shook his fists. "I'm leaving and I'm gonna join the Marines! Then I'm gonna spend the rest of my life beating up dirty pirates like you!"

"Do you have any clue what you're saying to me right now?" Alvida asked him.

"Of course I do!" Coby yelled. "And I'm gonna do what I want, and no one's gonna stop me, and when I join the Marines I'm gonna catch your lousy ass first!"

"YOU'RE DEAD, KID!" Alvida screamed at him. She charged him with her mace. Coby was screaming and holding his head in his hands, but he wasn't backing down. You've got to give it to the kid, he had balls.

Then Luffy stepped in between him and Alvida. "Well said!" he said to Coby. The mace came down and Luffy was still … but he hadn't died. If possible, his grin only widened further. "That won't work!" he mocked.

"What!?" Alvida exclaimed in shock.

"I'm rubber!" Luffy exclaimed as he raised his head, pushing the mace up along with it. He reared his fist back and knocked the mace away from him. His arm stretched to unnatural lengths once again, and Luffy shouted, "GUM GUM … PISTOL!" His arm came shooting back at unfathomable speeds and his fist connected directly with Alvida's stomach. The ugly pirate captain did something that she shouldn't physically be able to do, and left the ground, flying miles away from the ship, screaming the whole time. I still don't know how far she was sent … though I do know that she was far enough away that I never heard the splash of her hitting any water.

The Alvida Pirates were now paralysed with fear of Luffy.

"Hey, you!" he shouted at them. When they stood up straight he continued on. "Go find a boat and give it to Coby! He's leaving your ship to join the Marines, and you're not gonna stop him!"

"Yeah, sure!" all of the remaining pirates said at once.

"Thanks, guys," Coby said. For the first time since I'd met him, there was a genuine smile on his face. I smiled, too. It was a fulfilling feeling, helping somebody start on working towards their dream.

Then three cannon balls impacted the water around us.

The impact made the ship shake, causing us to loose our balance, nearly toppling over. When I looked to see where the cannon balls had come from, I saw three heavily armoured ships. And in situations like these, that could only mean one thing.

"Marines," I said. I turned to face my captain. "Looks like it's time for us to go, Luffy."

"Yep!" Luffy said. He then spoke to Coby. "What are you waiting for? Head on over there and tell 'em you wanna join! But we're pirates, so we're out of here." Luffy and I jumped over the railings of the ship and into one of the small boats that were attached to the side of the ship.

"No! Wait! You can't be serious!" Coby yelled at us. "If I go to them like this, they'll just arrest me like another pirate!" He climbed into the boat after us.

With my baselards, I had little trouble cutting through the ropes that held the boat to the ship. After a short plummet, we hit the water with an almighty splash, sending water flying all over the place. Including another boat not far away, as it happens. I turned my head briefly to get a look at whoever was occupying it and saw a young woman with orange hair staring at us with curiosity and some annoyance. Probably from the fact that we'd just splashed her.

"Lovely day, isn't it?" I said to her. I winked at her and turned my head to concentrate on the matter at hand. In no time at all, we were sailing away from the ship, and away from possible arrest at the hands of the Marines.

"We actually managed to get away …" Coby said in relief.

"Coby, did you ever doubt it for a second?" I asked him. "If there's one thing you should know after this whole experience, it's that we're brilliant at what we do."

Luffy laughed loudly. "What fun!" he yelled.

"Hey, Luffy," Coby said. Luffy turned to listen to him. "If you two're going after the allusive One Piece, then you must be headed to the Grand Line, right? You know, the people I've talked to call that place the pirate graveyard."

"Right, and that's why I need an extra strong crew," Luffy told him. "You guys mentioned some pirate hunter. So what's he like, Coby?"

"Oh, you mean Zoro," Coby said. "Last I heard, he was being held prisoner at some Marine base."

"Oh well. Weakling, huh?"

"No, you're wrong! He's as violent as a demon, and three times as horrifying! … Why are you asking about him, anyway?"

"I figured if he's good enough, I'd ask him to join my crew!"

"Chasing him down is just plain reckless!"

"You never know, he might jump at the chance to join."

"He's a bad enough guy that the Marines caught him! No way! Not a chance! Forget it! No! No! _Ow!_ " Luffy had hit him again. "Why'd you hit me?"

"'Cause I felt like it!"

"And thank you for doing it, Luffy," I said. "Coby, you need to learn one very simple thing about us. You ready?"

"… Yeah?" he asked in confusion.

"We don't care how dangerous it is," I told him. "If it's a step to reaching our goal, then it's a step we'll take. Simple as that."

"… What's your dream, Stu?" Coby asked me. "I've heard Luffy's, and you've heard mine. What's yours?"

I smiled softly at him, a smile that contained the full force of a promise made to people long since dead. "To go on an adventure."

* * *

 **And that's a wrap, folks! How did you like it? Are you liking Stu so far? I know he's coming across as a little morally questionable, but there's a reason for that which you'll find out eventually. You'll actually be getting a little of that from pretty much everybody; I mean, come on, they're PIRATES! They may also be good people, but they would still be doing some pretty questionable shit. Just look at Nami; even after Arlong Park she steals from pretty much everyone. I'll be using the animé rather than the manga, in case you were wondering.**

 **Did you catch what I said in the first Author's Note about this being the first in a series? Well then, I'd like to tell you that this is going to be the first in a series of fanfictions. Y'see, _One Piece_ is just too long to put into one story, so I thought I'd do what plenty of other authors have done before me, and make a series of them. The titles are fairly basic, each one being named after the saga in which it takes place. Just from that you should probably be able to guess the titles.**

 **How many of you are curious about how Stu met Luffy? Well, you shall get your answers in time, my friends. I only hope you are patient enough to handle it.**

 **See you next time!**


	2. Corrupt Marines

**Hello there, everyone. While I'm more than pleased with the reception this story has been getting, there is one thing I'd like to clarify before we go on. Stu is NOT a play on the phrase 'Gary Stu'. It's not intentional. I didn't even notice it myself until you guys started pointing it out to me ... I guess I'm kind of an idiot like that.**

 **But anyway, now that that little moan is over and done with, I'm going to get on with the good stuff. Like the fact that, with what I have planned, he isn't going to be anywhere _near_ the Gary Stu some people probably think he is. I like to make my characters feel at least somewhat like real people, and with the things I have planned for Stu, he's going to be no different.**

 **TheMysteriousOtaku: Well, as I stated above, he isn't supposed to be a Gary Stu. The hair colour was actually supposed to be just black originally, but I decided to throw in red to add a little more colour to him since his attire is entirely black, too. As you saw last chapter, Stu is skilled with dual-wield swords; the daggers will mostly be used for sneak attacks and occasionally throwing.**

 **Theboblinator: Thank you! Yeah, I just thought it'd be interesting to have a more morally ambiguous character on the team for a change. He's actually going to get quite a lot of character development regarding that (and that's all I'm saying. At least here, spoilers and all that, you know). Oh, yeah, he will be insulting pretty much EVERYONE he decides he doesn't like. I am having a God-damned field day coming up with shit for Stu to say to the antagonists. And thank you again.**

 **DarkLord98: Thank you for restraining yourself. As I said before, the name wasn't intentional. But thanks for the support either way.**

 **Guest: Thanks!**

 **gamelover41592: Well, I hope it lives up to that potential, then.**

 **Guest: Hmm ... well, there's a couple actually. This, for one, I have found I rather enjoy (even though updates aren't exactly flying in). _Freshman at Yokai_ is another one of my favourite ones to work on. And I suppose _Hellsing's Supernatural Soldiers_ is one as well.**

 **Guest: It's fine to be curious about updates, but toning it down would be much appreciated. Thanks, anyway. And, in answer to the question you asked in the previous review, I will admit that occasionally I get distracted from my writing because I'm reading a little too much.**

 **I think that's about all I have to say. So without further ado, let's begin.**

* * *

Corrupt Marines

As you would most likely expect, we were just sort of sitting in the boat for a while after that. As it turns out no one actually asks you for specifics when you give them the vaguest possible answer to their question. Coby had asked what my dream was, and apparently the four-word answer that I gave was enough to satisfy him. That honestly confused the fuck out of me, but whatever, for now we were just happy to be sailing.

That little bit of pointlessness right there should tell you something else about me: I don't tend to focus on the important details, but have a strange obsession with the small ones. I could be in a life or death situation and crack a joke at some guy's haircut, that's how bad it gets sometimes.

While Luffy and Coby seemed rather enthusiastic about making land—not a big surprise, since Luffy was enthusiastic about pretty much everything—I was actually pretty bored. The situation with that fat bitch Alvida was the first bit of fun I'd had in a while, and now I was craving more. And even then, I'd hardly classify the confrontation with Alvida as 'fun'. That crew of hers was so overly pathetic that my chances of dying were pretty much null. Some call me insane, but the more likely I am to die, the more fun I'll have in any given situation. Enjoyment at that was pretty much the only emotion you could get from me, to be honest.

Though, once again I must stress that I did _not_ enjoy the killing aspect of this; it was not driving my blades through another pirate's body that gave me pleasure. Indeed, I actually felt next to nothing when I did so. It was the tingling feeling in my spine when I knew an enemy had the upper hand, the shaking of my nerves when I felt the icy bite of death approaching, the tensing of my body when my foe managed to land a hit on me. It was the chances of _my_ death that I enjoyed, not theirs.

My thought process ended when the seagulls flying above us making atrocious amounts of noise started to irritate me.

"What a daaaaaaay!" cheered Luffy. He was sitting on the front of the boat – _right_ at the front; I was actually surprised he hadn't fallen off – throwing his arms in the air in an expression of pure joy. It was almost as if he thought the giant grin on his rubber face was too subtle, and he felt he needed to make his happiness even _more_ obvious. "It's gorgeous!"

"It would be if these damn birds shut the hell up," I said, glaring into the skies above us and narrowing my eyes at the feathered fiends.

"As long as we stay on this heading, we should reach the Marine base in no time at all," said Coby. He, too, was smiling; Luffy's enthusiasm had probably put him in a good mood.

"Wow, Coby, you're great out here," said Luffy. "You mean we're actually gonna reach the place we originally set out for?"

"Of course," said Coby. "It's nothing. I'm just using the skills I think _every_ sailor should have." He was tweaking his round glasses, a frown on his face as he watched Luffy laugh his ass off. "You know, there's really nothing to be so giggly about … because, at the Marine base … they're holding the great pirate hunter Roronoa Zoro."

 _Yet another mention of this 'Zoro',_ I thought curiously. _He must be a pretty big deal if so many people have heard of him … well, I guess Luffy's got another potential crew-member …_ I pitied this Zoro guy a little. If Luffy did indeed decide he wanted Zoro on the crew, there was no stopping it no matter how much the guy might refuse. I sat there, listening intently to what Coby had to say. All the talk of this 'pirate hunter' had piqued my interest.

"This is the man who's diced up his bounties like an animal bent on carnage," continued Coby. "A bloodthirsty beast. He's been called nothing less than a living, breathing demon in human form."

"Sounds like a fun guy to have at a party," I said. The seagulls continued their incessant noise and my left eye twitched. "Pardon me for a second." I took one of the many daggers I had concealed on my person, turned my eyes upwards for a few moments, and then with a movement that could barely be seen I threw the dagger directly at one of the seagulls. I lost sight of the dagger in the sunlight, but I knew it had done its job when a spatter of blood landed on the deck of the small boat, and a moment later a dead bird landed there, too. The other seagulls fled the area immediately.

I ignored the not-so-slightly horrified look that Coby was giving me, and sat down. I briefly glanced at the dead seagull.

"Well," I said, "at least we know what's for dinner."

~Pirates of the East Blue~

We made land not long after, just as Coby had predicted. The town was quite large when one got up close to it, the large Marine base at the centre clearly helping in that regard. The buildings were sort of crammed together, also making it look much bigger than it was in actuality.

" _We're he~ere!_ " announced Luffy loudly as our small boat came to a stop at the sandy shores of the island. "The Marine base city!"

"Are we, Luffy? _Are_ we?" I asked. "No, no, this can't be it. Just looks like more ocean to me."

"What're you talking about?" asked Luffy in confusion. "We're standing on dry land, Stu! You're not losing it, are you, buddy?"

"Oh, Luffy," I said with a sigh. "The day you learn to comprehend sarcasm will be a happy day for us all."

We took off into town immediately after that. It was a very lively place, filled with the hustle and bustle of people going about their daily business. The streets were lined with vendors selling their wares, which mostly consisted of food and other such pleasant-tasting delights from the looks of things. I was surprised that Luffy could hold himself together when surrounded by all this potential deliciousness. I wasn't very hungry, though; that seagull had hit the spot pretty good.

"Luffy, seriously," said Coby, "you're out of your mind if you think the best thing to do is get this guy to join you!"

"Well, I haven't made up my mind yet," Luffy said, not really noticing the clearly worried and patronising tone Coby was using. "I've gotta see if he's a good guy."

"He's in prison because he's obviously _not!_ " Coby shouted.

"Coby, chill out a little," I said, patting him on the head. He glared at me and I laughed. "I think you'll find that a pirate's definition of good—yes, that includes pirates like us—is a very broad thing that normally just means whether or not they're likely to kill us or do anything we won't approve of."

Coby grumbled something under his breath that I didn't quite catch.

Luffy stopped by a stall which was selling fruit. He picked up a ripe-looking pear, took a bite, and flipped a coin over to the guy running the stall. "Hey, is that guy Zoro around her somewhere?"

The result, I must admit, was rather entertaining, if a little bit confusing at the same time.

The stall-runner—along with everyone else who happened to be within earshot—recoiled and gasped in surprise. Everyone's faces held an expression of fear.

I found myself chuckling a little at the response. "Okay, I guess that's a definite 'yes'," I said.

"Maybe we shouldn't mention the name Zoro here, okay?" Coby whispered to us.

As entertaining as I found the response of the townspeople, I found that I had to agree. Freaking people out wouldn't get us anywhere but possibly kicked out of town. It was more convenient that Luffy got another crew member as soon as possible, as that would allow us to get closer to our ultimate goal. Besides, as I've stated, Luffy's distinct lack of most common sense and knowledge made me anxious to get somebody on the crew who could share in my exasperation at some of things he said and did.

 _That's a new feeling,_ I thought to myself as the three of us continued to make our way through town. _I'm looking forward to something other than the dangers of the journey._

"Let's head to the base and check it out," Luffy suggested as we walked. "You wanna be a Marine, right?" He directed the question at Coby, obviously.

"Well of course I do, Luffy, but I really don't think I'm ready just yet," said Coby with a nervous smile. "From what I've heard, the man in charge of this base is called Captain Morgan."

I was treated to another entertaining spectacle as, once again, everyone who happened to be within earshot drew away from us like we were the carriers of some fatal disease. If anything, they were now giving us an even wider berth than before. I found that strange … why would they have been afraid of a Marine captain?

Luffy laughed riotously. "This town is such a weird place!"

"That was odd," observed Coby. "I mean, I understand if they're scared of Zoro, but why did they flip when I mentioned the Marine captain's name?"

"My thoughts exactly, Coby," I said, flashing him a grin. "Shall we go and ask?"

"I, er … don't think that's a good idea," he said sheepishly. I don't think he appreciated the way my conversations with people usually went. "I've got a bad feeling about this …" he tagged on to the end.

"Maybe they were all just jumpin' around for the fun of it," Luffy suggested.

"Let's test that, shall we?" I said. I looked around at all the passing townsfolk. "Anyone know anything about a Roronoa Zoro?" Same thing; jumping back and showing expressions of fear. "How 'bout Captain Morgan?"

After that they just ran from me.

"You know, Luffy, I _don't_ think they do it for fun," I said. I made no attempt whatsoever to hide the amused grin that had formed on my face.

Almost immediately after that little display, we came across a large, metal gate that read _MARINE_ in rather large letters. The wall was made up of large bricks, crumbly but strong. The building on the other side of the gate was massive; it was oddly shaped, too, but that was really no surprise when one is sailing the seas.

"This looks like the place," said Luffy.

I didn't even dignify this obvious statement with my usual sarcastic response.

"… I made it …" said Coby. He had a large smile, positively brimming with happiness, on his face. There were tears forming in his eyes. He raised a hand to his face, almost as if trying to wipe them away through his glasses. He was openly crying now.

Luffy walked towards the gate, something that Coby didn't notice but I was fully aware of. Luffy began to scale the wall. I smirked when I realised what he was doing.

"… I know we didn't have long together, but I …" Coby stopped. He took the hand away from his eyes and saw Luffy near the top of the wall, his arms being the only thing supporting him, his feet flailing in the air.

"Where's the foothold?" Luffy said with a grunt.

" _Get down from there! What are you doing?! They'll see you!_ "

Coby's cries fell on deaf ears. They only increased when I, too, began to scale the wall, plunging my baselards into the sturdy bricks in order to climb without falling. I got to the top and looked over the wall.

"Now where's this demon?" Luffy asked as he looked around the area.

"They wouldn't keep him out in the open," said Coby. "He's probably tucked in a prison cell below ground—"

"Found him," I said.

At least, I thought I had. I couldn't really tell from the distance we were at; I could only assume. But, let's be honest, who else could it have been? The man I saw was tied to a wooden cross of sorts in the yard of the Marine base; the ropes only held his arms, but they were so low that he was forced to his knees. All I could really make out was a white T-shirt and a black bandanna wrapped around his head.

"I'm gonna get closer," said Luffy. He dropped to the ground and took off to the other side of the base.

I followed, naturally. I walked over to the other side of the base and scaled the wall just next to where Luffy had. It worked, and I noticed that the man tied to the cross had green hair and rather tanned skin. His head was down and his face was shrouded in shadow, meaning I couldn't make out his facial features. I _could_ see that he looked a little bit roughed up, however. It was likely that his captors hadn't been very courteous with him.

Of course, the heat of the sunny day couldn't have helped his condition, either.

"Stu, Coby, look!" said Luffy.

"I'm already here, Luffy," I said with a dry smirk.

Coby groaned as he climbed up on to the wall next to us. "I'm telling you two, he's not—" He cut himself off as he caught site of the man tied to the cross. A strangled gasp escaped his throat. He stared in terror at the man.

"If we untie those ropes he could just walk away," said Luffy with a grin.

" _Don't be such an idiot, Luffy!_ " yelled Coby. He glared at Luffy as if he were a maniac. "There's no telling what a bandit like him will do if we let him go! He might just kill all three of us!"

"Well, we'll never know if we don't try, will we?" I asked. Personally, the idea that what Coby had just said was true excited me quite a bit. If this Zoro, whom I assumed was some kind of trained swordsman if what Coby had told us was accurate, was almost certainly far ahead of me in terms of skill with a blade … and the thought of fighting him exhilarated me.

"Stu's right," said Luffy in agreement with my statement. "And don't worry, Coby. I'm strong. I can protect us."

Coby looked like he was about to faint.

"Hey, you three!" called a rought voice. It came from the man tied to the cross. "You're an eyesore. Get lost."

Coby, of course, freaked out the second the guy spoke.

"Luffy, Stu, trust me," yelled Coby, "there's no way you'll survive with someone like _him_ on your crew."

And then a ladder was pressed up against the wall from our side. Up the ladder climbed a little girl—maybe about seven or eight years of age—who had a rather determined expression on her face. She looked at us and put a finger to her lips, _shush_ ing us.

"Holy crap, how did we not see her?" I asked under my breath. "She crept up on us like some kind of God damn _ninja_."

" _Stu!_ " Luffy hissed at me under his breath. "Don't _ever_ say that word again!"

"What, you mean ninj—"

" _Don't!_ "

In the end, I chose not to question it. Something about the word 'ninja' seemed to send Luffy into a rather angry frame of mind. God knows why, though; it's not like there's some kind of rivalry between pirates and ninjas … is there?

The little girl looked around the area intently, and then seemed to produce a length of rope out of nowhere in particular. She threw the rope down in to the yard of the Marine base, then climbed down it … then she started running towards the man who was tied up, whom I felt I could relatively safely assume was Zoro.

Coby screamed practically at the top of his lungs—a noise I was annoyingly getting used to. "Luffy, Stu, we gotta stop her! She'll be killed! By the Marines or the demon himself!"

I wasn't so sure, and apparently neither was Luffy. The both of us just looked on curiously as Coby kept getting more and more tense beside us.

"What do you want?" asked Zoro as the girl reached him.

"I thought you might be getting hungry now," said the girl in a cheerful voice. "So I made you a couple of rice balls."

"You got a death wish, kid?" asked Zoro. "Just scram."

"But you haven't eaten anything the whole time you've been tied up." The girl rummaged around in her pockets and took out two rice balls. "Here. I've never really made them before, but I did my best, so I think they're fine."

Zoro looked a little taken aback, but persisted. "Listen, kid, I'm not hungry! Now stop irriating me and get outta here!"

"… But …"

"Do _not_ make me kick your ass, little girl!"

"Now, now, no one likes a bully," said an obnoxious sounding voice, accompanied by the sound of a gate opening. Through a large gate on one side of the base stepped three men. Two of them wore generic Marine uniforms, but the one who I took to be the leader was wearing a purple suit. He was blonde, his chin resembled separated ass-cracks, and he looked arrogant as hell. I despised him immediately. His hair … well, it looked kind of like a bread roll. He laughed. "Roronoa Zoro, you seem to be handling this well. Don't you agree?"

"Hey, look, there's another weird guy," Luffy pointed out. I didn't have the presence of mind to tell him how obvious his statement was.

"That's great," said Coby in relief. "He must be with the Marines. Now we know the girl will be safe."

"How many wigs do you think could be made if that guy got a haircut every once in a while?" I asked absent-mindedly.

"Lookie," said the man, leering at the girl, "some tasty rice balls." He grabbed one from the girl's hand and immediately began to chomp on it.

"Th-that's not for you!" the girl protested.

The weird-hair man chewed for a few moments before spitting out the rice ball in disgust. "Too sweet!" he cried. He glared at the girl. "They're packed with sugar! You're supposed to use _salt_ , you idiot! _Salt!_ "

"But I … I thought they'd taste better sweet."

Unfortunately, the girl's justifications fell on deaf ears. The man ripped the remaining rice ball from her hands, and then he began to stomp it into the ground. The girl's cries of "Stop!" and "I worked so hard!" seemingly meant nothing to him as he continued to stamp all of her hard work into the ground.

"… That's just awful!" said Coby.

I didn't disagree.

The girl was on her knees, tears flowing from her eyes. "But I … worked so hard to make those …" She simply couldn't hold back her sobs.

"Too bad," the man said. He had a hand on his forehead. "You must not have seen the notice that was posted." He held out a piece of paper and began to read from it. "Those who assist criminals in any way will be executed. Signed Marine Captain Morgan."

The girl recoiled. The fear was blatant on her face.

The man laughed. "It seems even little brats fear my daddy," he said with a cocky smirk.

"His 'daddy'," said Luffy.

"Oh joy, it's one of _these_ assholes," I muttered under my breath. Spoiled brats with powerful parents. I had always hated them and I always would. "How much trouble do you think I would get in for shoving an _actual_ stick up his ass?"

"S-So that guy's father is Captain Morgan …?" said Coby in shock.

The guy with hair a clown would find ridiculous casually looked over his shoulder at one of the two Marines. "You, toss this kid out right now," he ordered.

The Marine seemed surprised by the order, and he hesitated.

Blondie stepped towards him and grabbed him by the shirt. "I said throw her over the wall, soldier! Now, if you won't follow my orders, I'll tell my father."

After a few more moments' hesitation, the Marine complied. "Y-Yes, sir! I'll do it!"

The Marine stepped forwards, and the little girl flinched back. As the Marine knelt down to pick the girl up, she yelled, "No!" but appeared to calm somewhat when he whispered something to her. The next thing I knew, she had curled herself into a ball and the Marine had tossed her—with a surprising amount of strength might I add—over the wall.

"Someone should definitely do something about that," I commented as she flew over us.

Luffy was already moving as I said it. He leapt backwards, off the wall, and stretched his arms out using his Gum Gum powers. His arms wrapped around the girl as she flew through the air, screaming, and Luffy positioned himself between her and the ground, taking the full brunt of the impact. Though it was clear he hadn't felt much of anything, as he was sitting up and smiling again in not time flat.

I leapt down from the wall to go and join them, as did Coby.

"Thanks, mister," the girl said with a large smile.

"Luffy, are you two okay!?" Coby asked frantically. He seemed to realise that questioning Luffy on his well-being was a pointless endeavour, so instead just knelt down beside the girl. "What about you, little girl? Are you okay? I can't believe how retched a person he is."

"Here," I said, handing Luffy his hat, which had fallen off when he saved the girl. "Don't want to be losing that, do you?" I glanced at the little girl and then at the wall of the Marine base. An excited grin overtook my features. "I guess things just got interesting, huh."

I noticed Luffy going back towards the wall. I took a brief glance back at Coby and the girl, and then I went after him after judging they were fine. I followed Luffy up and over the wall, bending my knees as I landed on the other side in order to lessen the impact of the landing. I went and stood beside Luffy, the both of us now standing and staring at the supposed pirate hunter tied to the cross.

"So, I hear you're a bad guy," said Luffy.

"Are you guys still here?" asked Zoro in irritation.

"You're stuck out here for all the world to see, and nothing," said Luffy. "Are you really all that strong?"

"Mind your own business!" growled Zoro.

"Why do they have you out here to begin with?" I asked. "Surely, as a pirate hunter, you're doing about eighty percent of their job for them, and _this_ is how they repay you?" I sighed. "Gratitude, man. It's a lost cause at this point."

"…" Zoro just stared at me. I was trying to decide whether he was actually thinking about what I'd said, or if he was just considering the possibility of my insanity. I found that people often did both.

Luffy approached him. "If I were you, I'd probably starve to death in three days," he said.

"I've got more spirit than you could ever have," said Zoro. He was grinning now; I briefly wondered if that was how I looked when I did it. "Which is how I'm gonna survive this ordeal. This I swear."

Luffy laughed a little. "What a weirdo."

"This coming from _you_ of all people …" I muttered to myself. The two of us turned to leave.

"Wait, hold on," Zoro said, grasping our attention once more. He glanced towards the ground. Specifically, he glanced at the crushed rice balls. "Could you … pick that up for me?"

"You're gonna eat this?" asked Luffy. He scraped the rice balls—which were basically mush at this point—into his hands. "'Cause it's mostly a ball of mud."

"Shut up and give it to me! _Now!_ " yelled Zoro.

Luffy did as he was asked and shoved the rice balls/dirt into Zoro's mouth. He took a while chewing, and had some trouble swallowing. He coughed a little afterwards.

"Should've listened to me," said Luffy, his arms crossed.

"Meh, I've eaten worse," I commented offhandedly.

"It was good," Zoro muttered under his breath. "Thanks for the food."

Luffy smiled—which wasn't exactly a rare occurrence—and so did I.

I had the feeling I was going to like Zoro.

~Pirates of the East Blue~

"Really?!" the little girl exclaimed in joy upon hearing what Luffy had told her.

"Yep," said Luffy. "He ate every last grain of rice there was."

 _He ate all the dirt, too,_ I added in my mind, but decided it wouldn't be a great time to say something like that out loud. We were just outside a small building. Luffy had seated himself on a barrel; Coby and the little girl, Rika, had sat themselves down on the steps outside the door. I myself was simply leaning against a wall, my arms crossed.

Rika smiled and clasped her hands together. "That's great!"

"I wonder if Zoro is really as evil as everyone thinks that he is," said Coby. He had been sat there, looking dejected, ever since we'd come back. I think what he saw the Marines do must have shaken his faith in them somewhat.

"He's not!" Rika said heatedly. She looked down in sadness. "He's good. Because … he got himself punished, for us."

"You're, uh … you're making no sense," said Luffy.

"Sorry," said Rika. "It's that dumb Helmeppo. He's the son of Captain Morgan. He came through town with this real big dog he has, and he told everyone that if they didn't move out of his way he'd have them executed. My mom runs a small restaurant—where I help out—and Helmeppo's dog just barged in and started eating people's food. I swung my broom at it to get it to stop, but … Helmeppo didn't seem to think his dog was doing anything wrong, and mom told me to stop so we wouldn't get in any trouble.

"I didn't stop, though … I was too late to stop. The dog looked at me and started growling. It jumped at me, and I was so scared … and then Zoro through a chair at it. He was eating his food by the counter, never even turned away from it, even when Helmeppo started shouting at him. Helmeppo started waving a sword around; he looked scared, so I think he musta recognised Zoro from somewhere. Zoro told him he just wanted to eat, and that made Helmeppo mad. He tried to hit Zoro with a sword, but Zoro just kicked it up into the ceiling. It was amazing! Then he punched that mean old Helmeppo in the face!

"Zoro got one of his swords out, and Helmeppo got all scared. He started telling Zoro that if Captain Morgan heard about this they'd execute me and my mom. Then they made a deal. Zoro has to stay tied up in there for a month; if he survives, he gets to go free.

"It's been three weeks since that day. Helmeppo keeps punching and kicking him while he's tied up. He's being so unfair!" Rika began to tear up after telling her story. "I don't … I don't know how to help him!"

"I see why you're upset," said Coby sympathetically.

I had to respect Zoro after hearing the story. Personally, I never would have been able to do what he was doing; I'd probably die of boredom in the first week. And more to the point, he was doing it to protect people he didn't know from certain death. While I had never fancied myself as much of a protector, I still valued innocent lives enough to say that I would do a wide assortment of crazy things to protect them. I had to give him credit for going through with the deal, because if it had been me I probably would've tried fighting all the Marines and seeing about getting some less corruptible ones in … but that would likely only end up leading to more trouble.

Sometimes my sense of enjoyment got in the way of any _common_ sense. I was kind of like Luffy in that way.

We were all distracted from our thoughts by a smashing sound coming from a nearby building. We walked in and found a small restaurant— _Probably the one Rika's mom runs,_ I though—where Helmeppo had his feet up on the counter, a cocky grin on his face. The woman behind the counter looked a lot like an older version of Rika, confirming my theory.

"That's more like it," said Helmeppo as Rika's mother poured what looked like wine into a glass he was holding. "I'm struggling to find something interesting to do seeing as I'm bored out of my skull here. I suppose I could execute Zoro!" He burst into a fit of laughter.

A look I wasn't used to crossed Luffy's face and stayed there. He looked _angry._ And the thought of my captain angry actually sent a small shiver of fear through me.

Before anyone could say or do anything further, Luffy took off running across the room. His fist flew into Helmeppo's at such high speed that I just barely saw it. Helmeppo went flying, his face hitting a wall as he had the laughter knocked out of him.

"Y-you just hit me!" he practically shrieked. He put a hand to his face where Luffy had punched him.

"Very keen observation skill you have there, Helbratto," I said with a smirk. "Would you care to tell us something even more obvious? Oh my, look, there's a woman running the shop!" I put a hand to my mouth in false shock, then turned to Rika's mother and said, "Uh, no offence, miss."

"Luffy, no! You can't hit him!" Coby tried to reason, holding both of Luffy's arms so that he couldn't do any more damage to Helmeppo.

"This guy's scum!" Luffy growled.

"You actually hit me!" repeated Helmeppo. "I am Captain Morgan's son, you know!"

"Yeah, like I care!" yelled Luffy.

"You'll care after he executes you for this!" Helmeppo seemed near hysterics.

"Oh, he can damn well try," I said. I still hadn't moved from my spot by the door. "Frankly, I'm not very scared of the threats of a no-good little daddy's boy. You're a pathetic little worm, Helmeppo, a cowardly bastard of a man. You may walk around like you own the place now, but what would it be like if daddy dearest wasn't around to bale your ass out of every bad situation. What happens when even he gets tired of your bullshit? What are you gonna do the people who mess with you then, huh, beat them to death with your _hair?_ You're a fucking joke, and I can't believe I've wasted this much breath talking to you."

"You … you …" Not only Helmeppo, but just about everybody there was staring at me in some form of shock. I didn't care. The little shit needed to be given a crash course in reality, and it didn't look like anyone else was going to give him one. I could care less what kind of trouble my words got me into. This guy was greatly inconveniencing all of the fine people of town, and I couldn't have that, could I?

"Yeah, why don't you just be a man and fight?!" Luffy said. Coby was still holding him back.

"Luffy, just ease off some," Coby begged him. He threw a look at me. "And you're even worse! Why are you two so determined to get on the Marines' bad side?!"

"I've made up my mind," Luffy announced. "Today … Zoro joins my crew."

Helmeppo, finally snapping out of the shock of how I'd dared to speak to him, got up and started running, his two Marine bodyguards following after. I was still standing by the door, so I decided to give him a little hand with leaving. I stuck a foot out and sent him tripping over, tumbling out the door and landing face first in the dirt.

"Just a little taster, asshole," I said, sending a confident smirk at him.

~Pirates of the East Blue~

Luffy, myself and, to his reluctance, Coby, went back to the Marine base shortly after I'd given Helmeppo a taste of the dirt. We had climbed the walls, and Luffy and I were stood there, staring at Zoro. He seemed to be in the middle of some sort of daydream, or recollection, or something.

"I made a promise to her," he mumbled to himself. "I can't afford to die like this …"

Whatever he was talking about, it sounded deeply personal. I felt a little guilty for listening to him.

Eventually, his eyes snapped open and he saw us standing there. He looked annoyed by our presence. "Don't you guys have things to do?" he asked.

"We'll untie you, but only if you promise to join my crew," said Luffy, getting straight to the point.

"Your _what?_ " Zoro asked.

"I run a pirate crew, and I'm looking for people to join up," said Luffy, stepping closer to the bound man. "Stu here is my first mate."

"No way!" said Zoro. "I'd never lower myself to joining up with a criminal. Screw that business."

"What's wrong with being a pirate?" Luffy asked.

"They're despicable," said Zoro. "Like I'd ever wanna join up with one!"

"In regards to some pirates—no, the _majority_ of pirates—I would very much agree," I said. "But not _all_ pirates are like that. I wouldn't be on this crew if we were going to rob and murder everyone we came across. Besides, your reputation isn't exactly clean as it is, what's becoming a pirate going to do to make it worse?"

"People can say and think whatever they want about me, but I haven't done a single thing in my life that I regret." Zoro grinned. "I _will_ make it through this challenge. And after that I'll accomplish what I want."

"Yeah … that's great," said Luffy. He smiled and crossed his arms. "But I've already decided you're going to be on my crew."

" _What?! You can't do that!_ " Zoro exclaimed.

"I apologise for my captain," I said. "He doesn't always understand that other people's ideas might not coincide with his."

"I hear you're one of the best swordsmen around," said Luffy.

"Well I am!" Zoro said in confirmation. "But that idiot Captain's son took mine away."

"Guess I'll just have to go get it back for you," said Luffy.

"What?" Zoro asked.

"So, if you want your sword, you're just gonna have to join my crew." Luffy crossed his arms and grinned triumphantly.

"Oh, Luffy, you devious bastard," I said. I was grinning, too.

Zoro looked about ready to pop a vein. "Now you're really pissing me off!"

Luffy took off running in the opposite direction to the Marine base. I simply stood there, waiting.

"Hey, genius, the base is in the other direction!" Zoro called out to him in exasperation.

That's when Luffy's hand reached over and grabbed the cross Zoro was tied to. He jumped and, due to his rubber powers, he came rocketing in our direction with a cry of, "GUM GUM ROCKET!" I sent Zoro a short salute, and grabbed onto Luffy as he passed, sending myself flying along with him. It was fun.

We landed close to the Marine base and started to look around it. We eventually came to a door.

"That's weird," said Luffy. "There's nobody here."

"I'll tell you what's weird," I said. "This building. God, it's built like a librarian's miniskirt!"

"We gotta find that crazy idiot's son and get Zoro's sword back for him," said Luffy, scratching the back of his head.

We then heard many cries of: "Heave! Ho!" from the roof of the building, prompting both of us to look up. I couldn't see anything, and apparently neither could Luffy.

"Sounds like something's going on up there," said Luffy.

"Thank you once again, Captain Obvious," I muttered.

"Guess we should check it out!" He stretched out his arm to the top, shouting, "GUM … GUM …" He glanced at me for a moment.

"I think I'll take the stairs," I said. The last time may have been fun, but with a leap that high, I wasn't going to risk it. Just because I enjoyed being close to death didn't mean I was entirely suicidal.

"… ROCKET!" Luffy finished before launching himself upwards.

I, on the other hand, entered the Marine base through the front door. It was a dull place. The walls were all grey metal and there was barely anything to liven the place up. The doors were the only things to not be made of metal, being some kind of light-coloured wood. I sighed and made my way through the building. It didn't take long for me to find some stairs and get to climbing.

At one point, I heard a great _CRASH!_ Coming from outside, but I ignored it. Whatever it was, the odds were I'd be dealing with it soon enough.

I took the time I spent climbing the abysmal amount of stairs to think a little. I was certainly meeting my goal pretty fast. It had barely been a day, and I had already been on a ship that was being attacked by pirates, and I was now making my way through a Marine base full of Marines that I knew weren't exactly the most honest of workers. I felt a shiver of excitement run down my spine at the thought of what would happen if I was caught. I wouldn't kill anyone, I'd already decided that; they may have been oppressing the people of the town, but they likely hadn't singed up to be Marines specifically for that purpose. There was a rotten apple in this grotto, and he was the one that needed to be gone to fix things.

"Who the hell … has a Marine gathering … up thirty flights of God damn stairs …?" I panted as I reached a door made of metal, signifying that I had reached the top of that particular stairwell. The doors on the ground floor had been wood, but as I went up I had noticed that the security noticeably tightened on the upper floors. I then noticed an orange-haired girl—the same one we'd splashed on the way away from the passenger ship—seemingly trying to stay hidden from the anyone who may be passing. "Oh … hello," I said in greeting.

She said nothing.

"You don't happen to know where I can find the next set of stairs, do you?" I asked. "I really can't be bothered to search another floor for the fucking things."

It was at that very moment that a number of Marines charged past down the corridor, yelling about something.

"Someone's rocking the boat," the girl said. She sounded a little annoyed.

"So it would seem," I said in agreement. I looked back at her. She was giving me a glare that came dangerously close to making me feel fear. "I'm just gonna follow those guys and hope I get lucky. Sorry to bother you." Her glare held. "You think I had something to do with that, don't you?" If anything, her glare intensified, confirming my thoughts without a doubt. "You know, it's pretty rude to just assume something like that. I mean, okay, you're not _wrong_ , but seriously, somebody else might take offence to that. At any rate, see ya!"

With that, I went on my way.

I followed the Marines until I came upon quite the scene. Luffy was holding Helmeppo out in front of him like a shield as the Marines pointed guns at the two of them. Luffy charged, still holding Helmeppo, and the Marines jumped the sides to get out of their way. I began running beside Luffy the second he'd gotten past the Marines.

"Hey, Luffy," I said with a grin. "Sorry I'm late. The amount of stairs in this place are fucking ridiculous." I was still sweating from going up all the damn things!

"Oh, hi, Stu," said Luffy. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good," I said. "I ran into a cute girl just a minute ago, so at least I had something nice to look at for a few seconds."

"This looks like yours," said Luffy as we entered a room. It was all white and furnished. I could tell it was Helmeppo's room without even having to ask. Only someone that wimpy would have such a comfort-based room in what is essentially a military base.

"I think we've found what we're looking for," I said as I took notice of three katana swords sitting in the corner.

"But there are three here," said Luffy. He looked down at Helmeppo. "Hey, wierdo, which one of these is Zoro's?"

Helmeppo was unconscious.

"Just grab 'em all," I said dismissively. I made my way over to the window and froze. "Uh … Luffy, we have a problem."

Outside, the Marines were surrounding Coby and Zoro. I saw who I thought was Captain Morgan—a man with darkly tanned skin, blonde hair, a bottom jaw of metal, and an axe for a right hand. The Marines were pointing their guns at Coby and Zoro. Captain Morgan seemed to be talking, likely giving some sort of monologue if the usual egos of bad people also applied to him.

Luffy grabbed onto the window sill, the three swords all strapped to his back. He began to step backwards. I went with him and took hold of him, knowing what was coming.

"GUM … GUM … ROCKET!"

We went flying through the window, breaking it on the way out. Luffy landed on his feet just as the Marines shot their guns, taking all of the bullets. I ended up rolling along the floor, groaning as my body impacted the ground.

The bullets had no effect on Luffy, simply stretching out his skin before bouncing back. One of them narrowly missed the head of Captain Morgan, who—along with all the Marines present, plus Zoro—were staring at Luffy with a mixture of shock and fear.

Luffy laughed loudly. "That won't work on me!" he taunted them. "Told ya I was strong!" He aimed the last statement at Zoro in particular.

"Wh-what the …?" Zoro said, barely able to get the words out. "What the hell are you?"

"My name's Monkey D. Luffy," said Luffy, turning to Zoro and giving him a thumb=up. "And I'm gonna be king of the pirates!"

And that's when shit _really_ started to go down.

* * *

 **I can't help but think this chapter got a little weak near the end. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I feel like I could have done better.**

 **Did you guys enjoy it? I hope you did, because I put my all into this. I don't really have all that much to say here other than it's great to be working on this again. I've provided a little more insight to how Stu's mind works, as you can see, and I hope you like his character. I realise that he hasn't made any major changes yet, but give it time. I plan on having him make a few changes in the near future.**

 **Arrivederci, my friends!**


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